Radiation from cold molecular clouds and Sun chromosphere produced by antiquark nugget dark matter

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

We study the astrophysical implications of the quark nugget model of dark matter and propose observational techniques for detecting antiquark nuggets (anti-QNs) with modern telescopes. Anti-QNs are compact composite objects of antiquark matter with a typical radius $R\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{cm}$ and density exceeding that of nuclear matter. Atoms and molecules of interstellar medium collide with antiquark nuggets and annihilate. We estimate thermal radiation from anti-QNs in cold molecular clouds in our Galaxy and show that this radiation appears sufficiently strong to be observed in infrared and visible spectra. Proton annihilation on anti-QNs produces $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ photons with energies in the range 100--400 MeV, which may be detected by telescopes such as Fermi-LAT. We have found that anti-QN radiation inside the solar corona is too weak to produce a significant plasma heating or any other observable effects, while the radiation of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ photons from the chromosphere may be observable. We also address the problem of survival of antiquark nuggets in the early Universe.